Review: Russell Brewing's A Wee ANGRY Scotch Ale

It's been a long time since I had Russell Brewery's A Wee Angry Scotch Ale. In fact, it was late 2010 when I did. I never did an actual review of it, so here we go :)

Appearance: Comes in a 650mL bottle. Pours a very very dark brown, with a hue that's a cherry red. Foam is going absolutely nowhere. I took this photo 15 minutes ago and the foam is at the exact same position as it is in the photo! The foam is a light beige colour.

Aroma: The aroma is a bit of a scotch. That being, a fruity caramel smell. Reminiscent of an Innis & Gunn beer. Butterscotchy in fact, bit of dark fruits.

Taste: A bit of a roasty malt taste hits my mouth first, followed with a bit of a butter scotchy caramel sweetness. Bit of bitterness, bit of a scotchy taste (as we all know). That's about it to be honest. It's decent as it has a nice balance of flavour - sweet, a bit of bitterness, bit of peat.

Overall Thoughts: A solid Scotch Ale. Not as strong in flavour as say.. Big Rock's Scottish Style Heavy Ale, no oaky taste compared to many scotch ales out there.. but some people find oaky taste in beer a bit too much, or they love it. I'm impartial. I like it, bit of sweetness, beautiful colour, very much a great alternative to something like Innis & Gunn or if you want a nice beer to read a book or the paper to. It is $5.18 for a 650mL bottle and has an ABV of 6.5% and 30 IBU.

On the back it states: A wee Angry Scotch Ale is part of the Russell Brewmaster Series which is a succession of small batch beers called for an unconventional beer drinker. World Beer Bronze Medal Winner 2010. Crafted in the style of a 19th century 90 Shilling Scotch Ale - a strong, dark ale with dominant malt accent that originated in Edinburgh. Made with Scottish specialty malts including Peated Malt imparting a slight smoky character to the beer. Brewed fresh at Russell Brewing by Jack Bensley and Anders McKinnon. Russell Brewing Company has been brewing premium craft beer in British Columbia since 1995. Our beer is 100% natural and has no preservatives. We don't pasteurize which means that we don't kill the taste - you drink it the way it is brewed. Fanatical about beer, we believe that the passion and quality that goes into creating Russell beer comes through the taste. Enjoy!

Cody Lobreau

Welcome to BeerCrank.ca! I'm a bit obsessed about craft beer, especially Canadian craft beer so I mainly review Canadian beer but I love to try beer from all over the world as well. My goal is to help influence the casual beer drinker to go out and expand their beer palate one way or another. Feel free to send some feedback!
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